Welcome to the NFL, rookie: Jenkins admits he’s out of shape — SFGate.com
He’s out of shape. Guess what? It’s May. I don’t care. He’s got the rest of this month and all of June and July before it even whiffs of mattering. Good thing he shows promise.
Alex Smith says no rust on Randy Moss in first San Francisco 49ers workouts – ESPN
Alex Smith says no rust on Randy Moss in first San Francisco 49ers workouts – ESPN.
Crazy how people thought Randy Moss was washed up. But then again, that was never really the issue. The issue was that he wasn’t motivated, that his head wasn’t into the task at hand. He got comfortable in New England and then got shipped out. This will be Moss’ last chance to change the lasting memory of his career and his work ethic. And if he doesn’t pull it off, the rumors will become reality. That’s Moss’ new motivation. That’s today’s reality.
Overachieving 49ers spruced up the football season
One week you love Alex Smith, the next week he's back on the chopping block.
In retrospect, the San Francisco 49ers played astronomically beyond their talents this season. Probably nobody knows this more than Jim Harbaugh. But I imagine he still must be distraught over Sunday’s 20-17 overtime loss to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship. I know 49ers fans are.
One can only look at Alex Smith and marvel at the 49ers’ turnaround season. With Smith at the helm, the franchise was teetering on edge in all of its 18 games. Could he make the big throw? Will he make the throw? Will the season go down in flames because of him? He transcended all of that, helping the 49ers to a 13-3 regular season and a stellar divisional playoff victory over the New Orleans Saints. And yet, still, the 49ers faltered.
Blame Kyle Williams if you want, but there were way too many plays left on the field against the Giants. And Smith, in my opinion, is just as worthy of fault as Williams.
Sunday’s NFC Championship was much like the 49ers’ Thanksgiving Day game against the Baltimore Ravens. The 49ers made too many mistakes to survive. The fumble by Williams in overtime stands out, but when Smith started playing target practice with the ankles of his receivers to begin two straight drives in the fourth quarter, there was more than a bit of trepidation seeping in the building. Smith’s final line was 12 of 26 passing for 126 yards and two touchdowns. If one didn’t know any better, you’d think the team in red and gold was playing with its backup under center.
However, in keeping with the 49ers’ theme of the year — stellar defense, mediocre offense — the team somehow fought its way into a position to win the game, pushing the Giants into overtime despite going three-and-out on two straight possessions with less than five minutes left in regulation. An inability to punch it into the end zone literally murdered the 49ers’ chance at Super Bowl XLVI.
Forget Williams. Get over that. It was a team loss, one marked by a deficient offense and tired defense. But what you can’t forget is that the 49ers went 14-4 despite what we all knew to be a limited team. It’s because of their phenomenal success that this year has been so satisfying for football fans, whether you’re from the Bay or not.
The loss to the Giants is not the first time the 49ers have disappointed me — and it surely won’t be the last. But this season also happens to have provided some surprises, for the better. I can live with that.
Alex Smith makes good
Alex Smith is creating a new legend in San Francisco lore.
I think we all can agree that Alex Smith has come of age this season. In the best game of his turbulent seven-year career, the man who played his college ball in Utah and never seemed to bring his helmet with him to the NFL, has leapfrogged every expectation thrown at him this season under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh. Smith provided San Francisco 49ers fans with an unbelievable performance to admire for years to come, besting the highly touted New Orleans Saints and their MVP-candidate quarterback Drew Brees. In the 49ers’ 36-32 win Saturday, Smith was nothing short of phenomenal (24-of-42 passing for 299 yards and three touchdowns). And while it was really a complete game for the 49ers, with the team being carried for three quarters by the defense, Smith really turned it up a notch in the fourth quarter as the offense carried the team. And it’s because of his late game heroics that I’m so enamored with the guy I openly said should be out of football — both here on this site and in my columns for The Union.
49ers linebacker Larry Grant, who I attended school with, expressed that the mood of San Franciscans has changed in regard to Smith, something I think has occurred nationally too.
“Being a San Francisco guy, I’ve seen the ups and downs in the past with Alex Smith,” Grant said. “Not only am I, but the city of San Francisco is proud of what happened. His success is leading us to the next level each week.”
A few plays on offense stand out to me and I think they should be noted here:
1) I’ve been critical of Smith because of his seeming lack of accuracy, penchant for tunnel vision, and general flappableness under duress. Not on Saturday. Not in the red zone. In the first quarter, on a patented West Coast slant, Smith hit Michael Crabtree in stride for a 4-yard touchdown to give the 49ers a 14-0 lead, erasing any doubts about his ability to pull the trigger and be a gunslinger with the best of them. I think I tweeted at the time it was a big boy throw. Better than the 49-yard touchdown he threw to Vernon Davis to go up 7-0 moments ago. It put the Saints on their heels and made Brees antsy, throwing multiple times into coverage. That was great for an opportunistic defense.
2) On what seemed like the 49ers’ last drive, their last chance to tie or win the game, on 3rd-and-7 with a little more than two minutes to go, Smith broke out left on a bootleg with tackle Joe Staley sprinting in front of him. Simultaneously, the realization of both talents came to fruition on a national stage. Staley, the veteran tackle and leader on the 49ers’ offensive line, performed one of the best blocks of his career and Smith, looking every bit the athletic quarterback he was touted in 2005, toed the sideline en route to a 28-yard touchdown. With the 49ers’ defense, the thinking was that the Saints were toast. Not so fast …
3) After giving up an unforgivable 66-yard touchdown to Jimmy Graham, the 49ers were faced with another long drive to win the game, with 1:32 left to do it. Smith, still with his big boy shorts on, made two not-so quick passes to Frank Gore to get the 49ers going. But it’s what he did on the fourth play of the drive that picked up the chins of the fans at Candelstick Park and those watching around the world. On 2nd-and-10, Smith threw a dart to Davis over the middle of the field with tight coverage on him. Davis turned it up field, sprinting for a 47-yard gain. Again, the old Alex wouldn’t have made that throw. He would have been paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake in that situation. But Harbaugh has him brooding with confidence, rightfully so, and he was able to show the world again that he was a quarterback that belongs.
4) With 14 seconds on the clock, and 49ers’ season seemingly on the brink, Smith stepped into another echelon of quarterbacks in San Francisco lore. Joe Montana did it. Steve Young did it. Now Alex Smith has done it. Looking for Davis again over the middle, Smith connects with the burly tight end on a laser of a pass for a 14-yard touchdown, one in which if it wasn’t as timely or as on target, would’ve likely been an interception. Even more phenomenal, Davis took his route, a post, behind Saints linebacker Scott Shanle in zone coverage and in front of Saints safety Roman Harper who was sitting two yards in the end zone. He had to bulldoze his way over the safety for the score. But it was small window of opportunity that amazed me. The possibility and probability of success on a throw like that must be very, very small. It was a Brett Favre throw. It didn’t make much sense, but it won the game. And with it, it won over more than few Smith detractors, myself included.
I could go on and on about this game. I could nitpick how the defense almost gave it away after setting a physical tone. I could look at five other Smith throws that I don’t think he would’ve made a year ago. I could go in length on the ballsy call by Harbaugh on Smith’s touchdown run. But the unrelenting sentiment is that this team, and in particular Smith, are overachieving underdogs. And despite being counted out, both in his career and in these playoffs, Smith has proven everyone wrong by leading the 49ers on this remarkable journey to the NFC Championship. The win against the Saints has been billed as an instant classic. Vernon Davis has said to call his touchdown “The Grab,” following in the footsteps of Montana’s “The Catch” and Young’s “The Catch II.” (On Twitter and Facebook, I called it The Catch III. I’ll defer to Vernon on this.) It can only get better for the 49ers. And certainly, if the season were to end on Sunday against the New York Giants, the overwhelming feeling now is that Alex Smith is the 49ers’ quarterback going forward. He has earned it.
My divisional playoff picks: Patriots, 49ers, Texans and Giants
Are you shocked already? You should be. I’m going on a limb here, both because of a rookie quarterback, some new faith in Alex Smith and the New York Giants.
Make no mistake about it, this is a weekend in which a lot of faith is necessary. The 49ers will not have an easy go of it against the New Orleans Saints. There’s no team hotter in the NFL right now. What Drew Brees can do with a football makes my eyes light up like a little kid. But the same can be said of the 49ers’ defense. There’s no team like it in the NFL, and also in that sense, there’s no team like the 49ers that changes the offensive strategy of an opponent. Opposing teams literally have to give up their running game. With an eye on defense, and the unbelievable possibility that Alex Smith will surprise, I see the one of three big upsets occurring in the divisional playoffs. Yup, I went there.
Saints at 49ers — See above.
My pick: 49ers
Broncos at Patriots — I happen to think that the Patriots are a better team than the Steelers offensively in every fashion. So much better than the Steelers, and Broncos, that I believe Denver’s defense will find itself on its backside by midway through the second quarter. The onus will be on Tim Tebow to save his team by helping the Broncos put up more than 30 points, something they haven’t done since early December. The Patriots average 32.1 points per game, almost two touchdowns more than the Broncos (19.3). In the last go round, everything came down to turnovers. This time, everything will be much more offensively oriented. At least that’s my prediction. (Depending on how you look at it, that could mean defensively oriented.) The Patriots win that battle.
My pick: Patriots
Texans at Ravens — On the road against a rested and feisty Baltimore Ravens team, I envision the T.J. Yates led Texans beating the Ravens. Not because of the rookie though, but because of its phenomenal defense (amazing effort against the Bengals) and the lack of a passing game that has come to characterize the Ravens’s offense (No. 19 in the NFL) in the final weeks of the season. I don’t believe a weekend away from the gridiron can correct their problems. On the other hand, there’s game film on these two from Week 6, a 29-14 win for the Ravens, when Joe Flacco was still pitching like a top-flight quarterback and Matt Schaub was healthy. The difference now, it seems to me, is that one team is hot and the other is not. Any team that struggles with the Cleveland Browns and falls to the San Diego Chargers isn’t deserving of going forward from this point. But then I also said any team that loses three in a row to end the season is bound for a plane ticket home too.
My pick: Texans
Giants at Packers — It is my humble opinion that when an awesome defense faces an awesome offense, and a very good offense faces a mediocre-to-poor defense, the team with the awesome defense will win. What we saw in wild-card weekend was an awesome defense, fiery and dominant in every respect. The Packers are an amazing team, but even in their 38-35 win over the Giants in Week 13, they allowed an alarming amount of points. Imagine if the Giants can wipe at least one touchdown off the board? Don’t imagine it. It’s going to happen.
My pick: Giants
Last week: 2-2
Regular season: 135-83 (61.9 percent)
Video: Who’s got it better than us? Harbaugh knows
I’ve never heard of this guy Bailey before. Frankly, I haven’t been listening to a lot of music out of the Bay. (They don’t play it in Boston.) But I like what he did here. Family friendly, even. Enjoy.
A few silly ideas about the 49ers, Patriots and my Week 13 NFL picks
Wouldn't it be awesome to have the 49ers defense paired with the Patriots offense?
It occurred to me after Sunday’s games were over that the New England Patriots, a team in which I occasionally help cover for the newspaper, is remarkably similar to the San Francisco 49ers.
How, you might ask? They’re not stupid teams. Not like the Eagles, whom killed themselves with penalties and drops against the Patriots, or the Jets, whom succumbed to idiotic gameplanning against the Patriots twice. The 49ers, unlike the bottom tier of the NFL and particularly the AFC East, are turnover allergic. They’re penalty averse. They’re smarter than your average Bear.
Through Week 12, the 49ers are 21st in the NFL for penalties committed and 15th in penalty yards. But most important, their turnover differential is a +16. The Patriots are a +6.
(The Patriots’ numbers in general are nowhere near as kind. I’ll get to that.)
There are signs of Bill Belichick in Jim Harbaugh. They’re both ill-disposed to making direct statements. They’re both committed to crappy players for reasons no one understands. And they’re both making the best of units that have eye-popping deficiencies. Think Alex Smith or the Patriots’ secondary.
Yet, when given the opportunity on a primetime game on the nation’s best holiday (yes, I went there) to show off the team’s new stature among the NFL elite, the 49ers were not up to the task. They committed seven penalties for 97 yards and Smith threw an interception, helping the Ravens bring the Red and Gold back down to Earth. What had worked for a majority of the season — ball security — was lost in the talk of the Har-bowl.
But luckily for the 49ers, they know this. Said Harbough, “I think it will makes us stronger going forward.”
Identifying the problems have been simple. Fixing the talent, has not.
Sound familiar?
The Patriots had the same sort of issues when they suffered a two-game skid a month ago. They knew what the problems were, but couldn’t fix the talent issue. (Again, think Patriots’ secondary.) In time, the team has gotten smarter. The talent-less Joes charged with defending the best wide receivers in the league have made fewer and fewer mistakes. Yes, they’ve given up some big plays, and yes they’re still worst in the NFL in passing yards allowed. But despite the alarm bells behind the numbers, they’re still apart of a defense that is giving up 20.3 points per game, good for 11th in the NFL. That’s because they don’t make stupid mistakes. Instead, they make the competition beat them straight up.
Imagine the Patriots with 49ers defense, which is the best in the NFL. They’d be undefeated. Imagine the 49ers with the Patriots offense, which is the second best, if not the best, offense in the NFL. They’d be undefeated.
These hypotheticals here really have no place in the world. But stop for a second and imagine if other teams in the NFL not only closed the talent gap, but closed the intelligence gap.
I recall sitting in the press box at the Meadowlands watching the Patriots beat up on the Jets and thinking, this is horrible. The Patriots aren’t more talented, but they’re certainly not as stupid as this team. The same could be said of a number of the 49ers’ wins. It’s a testament to the coaching and the fact that the NFL is not as much about brute force and talent as it is about smarts. Without smarts, the Patriots definitely wouldn’t be 8-3. And the 49ers wouldn’t be 9-2. And I wouldn’t be thinking of some fantasy concoction.
And now on to my picks, comments not included.
Rams at 49ers
My pick: 49ers
Read the full article »
Let’s add up the first four weeks of picks, plus 49ers thoughts
Just as promised, I’m here to add up the totals from my weekly NFL picks and do a bit of reflecting — a week late.
I know, I know. But I’m a busy bee.
So the short and skinny of it is I’m 35-23 through Week 4, missing of course games the Patriots have played and two games in Week 1 I happened to forget. (I think I was just too late for the Thursday night opener with the Saints and Packers.)
In Week 3, I was an amazing 10-5 (15 games). I’ve gotten better each and every week after going 6-7 (13 games) in Week 1 and 8-7 (15 games) in Week 2. In Week 4, I dominated going 11-4.
My picks don’t take into account the spread.
My biggest surprise has been what’s been raising everyone’s eyebrows across the NFL: The Eagles’ porous start, the Bills’ 3-1 record, Cam Newton and the 4-0 Detroit Lions. Everything else, I’ll chalk up to the game.
But as for the 49ers, their 3-1 start has been nothing short of exciting. Mostly because I thought they’d just suck and the faithful would be inches closer to banning Alex Smith from the Bay Area. So far, he’s been an efficient do-nothing QB. He’s 72 of 105 passing for 795 yards and four touchdowns to only one interception. He’s got 97.7 QB rating and has been sacked 14 times. I can’t reasonably argue for more from this guy. However, I still eye him suspiciously. I mean, he’s bound to eff up, right? So the 49ers’ success — and I guess you can say Smith’s success — has been a pleasant surprise in a season full of them. Oh, and guys like Kendall Hunter — much like the Patriots’ Stevan Ridley — make me smile.
There’s a lot to smile about this season. And I don’t just mean my 60 percent success rate at picking games.
Is San Francisco a baseball city?
At Jazzfest in San Francisco, Giants fans were showing their love in ways that they've never done before.
But in San Francisco, last season’s World Series title has created a shift in what was most definitely a football city. It’s fair to say that the reign of Alex Smith has destroyed any semblance of the golden years for the 49ers. And the reign of Tim Lincecum — and before that Barry Bonds — has given the Bay Area a sense of unbridled success that none of the five other professional sports teams has provided in a long time.
It’s hard to characterize it completely, but with the 49ers’ playoff drought so long and the depths of its porous play so low, you’d think the fervor over the red and gold would waver. That’s not the case. But the overriding feeling is that the 49ers have become a hopeless franchise — one that is habitually one or two pieces away from being complete. However, for the Giants — who havn’t been stacked with talent through the lineup in generations — the fervor over the G-Men has risen past the dominating football fandom. Casual baseball fans now count themselves among the diehards. Transplants to the city now claim the Giants as their team. It’s all topsy turvy in a city that has a changing culture and changing demographics.
Nothing about San Francisco sports is the same as it was 10 years ago. Steve Mariucci was still in town. Terrell Owens, too. The Warriors didn’t have an identifiable league star. The Raiders were Super Bowl contenders. The Giants were on the cusp of the playoffs. But everything revolved around the 49ers. Not until 2002 did the Giants steal a bit of the limelight with its first World Series trip since with Bay Bridge series in 1989. Barry Bonds followed that up with the home run chase.
The only blip on the Bay Area sports timeline that surpassed the interest of the 49ers and Giants in that time was the Warriors’ 2007 playoff run. The excitement over their series win over the Dallas Mavericks reverberated throughout Northern California — speaking volumes about the need for a viable basketball team. But it was quickly forgotten with the dismantling of the team, starting with one of its core players in Jason Richardson.
(On a side note: Remember Monta Ellis being a super sixth man on that team? Good times.)
The last time the 49ers went to the playoffs was 2002. Their last Super Bowl win was in 1994. For the diehards, it has been an eternity. For the casual fan, it’s been an opportunity to divert their attention to the region’s better team: The Giants.
A whole generation of young fans in the Bay are growing up on the success of the Giants and will know nothing of the 49ers’ glory years. Specifically the kids, who are always the lifeblood of new fans, don’t know that in the last 30 years the 49ers went to the playoffs 18 times. That’s because those playoff trips were within a 22-year time span starting in 1980. (Before last year’s World Series win, the Giants’ previous playoff trip was in 2003. They’ve been to the playoffs 7 times in the last 23 years.) That generational shift in fan favor, coupled with the casual observers and the transplants to boot, are painting a new picture in San Francisco. A picture in black and orange.
So while pessimism and angst are sorely ingrained in the conversation about the 49ers — who are expected to do well in San Francisco — optimism and cheer reverberate around the Giants. The two are polar opposites of where they were just a decade ago.
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